My Favorite Sculptures at Museo Nazionale Romano, Roma

The last museum I visited in Roma is Museo Nazionale Romano (Roman National Museum), which hosted an array of wonderful, even spectacular sculptures, including a version of a marble Discobolus (Disc Thrower), which is as iconic as Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  However, despite my love for this famous image, I found this particular version of Discobolus, discovered in 1906 in the ruins of a Roman villa at Tor Paterno in the former royal estate of Castel Porziano, a bit still and plastic. It was heroic and beautiful for sure, but somewhat meaningless.

Instead, my favorites were two sculptures with understated grandeur, relative static poses belied the hidden tension.

The first was a marble statue of the Roman emperor, August as Pontifex Maximus.  It was a full length sculpture, capturing the emperor, in flowing robe, walking quietly, as if weighing something of considerable importance.  It's a fleeting moment, unguarded, without officious pomposity.  A high-born nobleman for sure, but also intensely human.  Pensive, and a bit sad.


August as Pontifex Maximus, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Museo Nazionale Romano), Rome, Italy

However, that sadness would be eclipsed easily by the grand tragedy of the Dying Niobid, another marble sculpture, capturing one of the queen Niobe's fourteen children being shot to death by the vengeful arrows of the slighted Apollo and Artemis, when Niobe boasted that she had much greater number of children than those of Leto, Mother of Apollo and Artemis.

The Dying Niobid, fleeing, was shot on her back, faltered to be on her knee, bent backwards, both hands reached to the killing tool on her back.  Her frontal torso and one leg exposed, revealing the beauty and the vulnerability of this tragic figure.  Her face was peaceful, almost like asleep, without obvious pain, though she did have a questioning look upon closer inspection.  Even her pose, though unbalanced, was not in painful twist.  The sculptor did not want to shock the viewer, rather, he wanted to present this moment in restrained dignity.  The more peaceful she seemed, the greater the sense of tragedy.


Dying Niobid, Palazzo Massimo, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome
Source: diffendale



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My Favorite Artworks at Galleria Borghese, Rome

After the miracle of the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museums), it might be tempting to say that I was saturated and couldn't take in any.  But my greediness knew no bound, therefore, my pilgrimage continued, in the eternal city itself.

The other major art museum in Rome, besides the Vatican and the Musei Capitolini, is Galleria Borghese - the Borghese Gallery, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. "The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621)." [Wikipedia]

I remembered that during my visit to Roma, in late September, it was very still quite hot and I was very grateful to be inside the cool villa after long trek in the endless garden ground.  The museum's arrangement was like that in someone's own home - a supremely rich person's home.  I saw the art collections as the residents or guests would have seen, only need to remind myself that they ought not to be touched.

The scale of the villa, though big, was not as big as a palace, therefore deeply deceptive.  I was constantly amazed at how many treasures it had held.  It had a hugely important sculpture collections and some very important paintings.  Flipping through the materials I collected and browse online, I zoom in for these two my favorites:


Apollo and Daphne Carrara's marble cm. 243 | Gian Lorenzo Bernini

This tall marble sculpture by the great sculpture Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was a marvel, vividly captured the moment Daphne, fleeing from the passion of Apollo, transformed into a laurel tree.  Look at how the barks started to encase her lithe body and how her flowing hair and the tips of her hands were turning into leafy branches, therefore the obvious characteristics of Baroque epoch. 

The official website of the Galleria provided further details on this masterpiece: "This life-size marble sculpture, begun by Bernini at the age of twenty-four and executed between 1622 and 1625, has always been housed in the same villa, but originally stood on a lower and narrower base set against the wall near the stairs. Consequently anyone entering the room first saw Apollo from behind, then the fleeing nymph appeared in the process of metamorphosis: bark covers most of her body, but according to Ovid's lines, Apollo's hand can still feel her heart beating beneath it. In 1785, when Marcantonio IV Borghese decided to place the work in the centre of the room, Vincenzo Pacetti designed the present base by using the original pieces, adding plaster to the plinth and another cartouche bearing the Borghese eagle, sculpted by Lorenzo Cardelli."

The second piece of my favorite in this Gelleria is an enigmatic painting by the great Titian (Tiziano), Sacred and Profane Love:


Sacred and Profane Love (1514 ca.) oil on canvas cm. 118x279 | Titian

This painting, made when Titian was about twenty-five to celebrate the marriage of the Venetian Nicolò Aurelio (coat of arms on the sarcophagus) and Laura Bagarotto in 1514, was actually a celebration of beauty of perfection and the chaste and stern woman in white was the bride herself, accompanied by Cupid and Venus, in her most alluring pose and attire. The strong contrast of these two evocative and provocative figures, the wonderful Arcadian landscape, and the playful putto, constituted an enchanting lyrical poetry.

According to the Galleria's description, the current allegorical title "is the result of a late 18th-century interpretation of the painting, which gives a moralistic reading of the nude figure, whereas the artist intended this to be an exaltation of both earthly and heavenly love. Titian's Sacred and Profane Love has virtually become the symbol of the Borghese Gallery itself."


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My Favorite Art Collections at Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museums)

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0"

My first European trip consisted the visits to Italy and France in the jubilee year 2000.  We arrived in Rome and the first museums we visited were the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museums).  I definitely started from the top.

There were too many treasures to mention there, including the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's greatest masterpiece - the Creation and the Last Judgement.  Yet, two sculptures edged them out in my book.  The first is the so-called Belvedere Apollo.  To me, this classical sculpture was the embodiment of perfection.  This young god, with his beautifully proportioned limbs, wonderfully shaped torso, and finely chiseled face and curly locks, displayed himself without hesitation and discomfort.  This sculpture is the ode to an era which valued human and humanity the most and rightly so it became the symbol of the ideal.  Only Michelangelo's David in Florence, Italy, came close to the radiant humanity, confidence and beauty.


Belvedere Apollo (2nd century Roman copy of 4th century BC bronze sculpture of artist from Attica) (Cortile ottagonale del Belvedere, Octagonal Court of Belvedere)
Source: Cambridge 2000 Gallery

The second choice of mine is the opposite in mood and movement.  It was a group sculpture -Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents, as depicted by Homer in Iliad.   This much-admired Laocoön and his Sons has been attributed by Pliny the Elder to the Rhodian sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus.

Here, they were in fear, agony and terror.  They struggled and fought, helplessly. Yet, they were not an entangled mess.  They were clearly delineated, beautifully illustrated and as if even horrible death could not destroy the humanness of these three, however pitiful they were.

This sculpture is full of movements and dynamic poses.  Highly dramatic and effective yet never betrayed the economy of classics.  An absolute masterpiece.


U.S. public domain, source: Wikipedia




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Mythology Series on Synch Chaos (Webzine)

Over the years, I have created a series of paintings based on Western and Chinese myths and legends.

Synch Chaos, a cutural webzine just published a series of my paintings.

Below is the list of the work and the links to the images on my web site ( www.matthewfelixsun.com )

Minotaur
Oil on Canvas, 24″ x 30″, Completed in 2005
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3844905109/in/set-72157621940201251/
Minotaur, as I saw it, was a tragic figure, who was condemned and trapped by fate to his horrible condition and savageries. He welcomed his slayer Theseus, who was approaching fast in a galley. Holding Ariadne’s thread, which will help Theseus to leave his labyrinth, Minotaur pondered on his imminent death and anticipated his own relief with trepidation and anticipation. A large tear rolled down his face, monstrous and beautiful.

Daphne
Oil on Canvas, 30″ x 40″, Completed in 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3867334845/in/set-72157622064751614/
A more or less straightforward rendition of the metamorphosis of Daphne into a laurel tree. Hands and arms of Daphne and the golden torso of Apollo dominated the canvas. In the background, the killing of Daphne’s playmate Leukippos by the jealous Apollo and the chasing of Daphne were simultaneously portrayed, to complete the whole cycle of the story.

Sisyphus
Oil on Canvas, 48″ x 24″, Completed in 2003
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3849117038/in/set-72157622064751614/
I put Sisyphus in the most hard to sustain position, to emphasis the difficulty and impossibility of his task and punishment.

Adam and Eve
Oil on Canvas, 30″ x 40″, Completed in 2008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3835030818/in/set-72157622064751614/
Adam and Eve were portrayed as sad and resigned figures. Adam cast down his eyes, as if he was trying to avoid eye contact with viewers, or his judges, while Eve reached out to Adam tentatively with right hand, whilst shielding her guilty face with her left hand. A heavy, lead-colored cloud hanging directly above them, shaped like a giant question mark. It also functioned like Damocles’ sword, threatening to crush them both.

Annunciation
Oil on Canvas, 36″ x 48″, Completed in 2002
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3835030876/in/set-72157622064751614/
Virgin Mary, on learning her pregnancy by the holy spirit, wailed for herself and the fate of her unborn son Jesus. She howled in grief beyond console. Perhaps, she was grieving for the entirety of humanity - by then, she must have learned the burden on her shoulders.

Jingwei Filling Up the Sea
Oil on Canvas, 24″ x 36″, Completed in 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3856364733/
Jingwei, in Chinese mythology, perished at a young age in the East Sea. After her death she chose to assume the shape of a bird in order to exact revenge upon the sea by bringing stones and small twigs from the mountains nearby over the sea in an effort to fill it up. Jingwei even has a short dialogue with the sea where the sea scoffs her, claiming that she wouldn’t be able to fill it up even in a million years, whereupon she claims that she will then proceed to take ten million years, even one hundred million years, whatever it takes to fill up the sea so that others would not have to perish as she did.
Again, I grouped a few events together to contain the cycle of the story in one canvas. The predominant feature is a sad fish with large tear. Here, the struggle is between elements and human activity and I tried to give sympathy to both.

Nüwa Creating Humans
Oil on Canvas
30″ x 40″
Completed in 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3848229487/in/set-72157622064751614/
Nüwa is a goddess in ancient Chinese mythology best known for creating mankind and repairing the wall of heaven. This painting is the tribute to my heritage. What can be more fitting then credit a female god as the creator of humans? The sad twist in this canvas is that the humans she created resembled, unfortunately, robots. No creation would be perfect.

Nüwa Patching Up the Sky
Oil on Canvas
30″ x 30″
Completed in 2006
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewfelixsun/3834238745/in/set-72157622064751614/
Two powerful gods quarreled and caused the collapse of the pillar which supported the sky and rain powered down to drown the living creatures on earth. This is the independent corroboration of the deluge in the Bible. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to supplant the fallen pillar, alleviating the situation and sealing the broken sky using stones of seven different colors, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. This explains the phenomenon that sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and that rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean. She also melted five-colored boulders to seal off the cracks of the sky. Other versions of the story describe Nüwa going up to heaven and filling the gap with her body (half human half serpent) and thus stopping the flood. The image I put forth was an earth-toned large woman, floating against cobalt blue boulders and running water in between, struggling to maintain her balance, in order to finish her Herculean (or shall we say, Nüwaian) job.

Matthew Felix Sun